If a researcher has obtained informed consent from all his participants, it means that:

a safeguard through which the researcher makes sure that respondents are freely participating and understand the nature of the research.

Researchers should try to avoid double-barreled questions, or questions that

attempt to get at multiple issues at once, and so tend to receive incomplete or confusing answers.

What kind of question usually produces a wide variety of responses by allowing respondents to answer in whatever way seems appropriate to them?

Open-ended question

Which of the following is an advantage of using interviews as a research method?

face-to-face conversations, allow people to speak in their own words, interviews help researcher dispel certain preconceptions and discover issues that might have otherwise been overlooked.

Some researchers suggest that interviews give “voice” to people who may never have been heard before and offer privileged access to authentic experience, private worlds, and true selves. How do interviews do this

Respondents can speak in their own words, can reveal their own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, internal states that may not have otherwise been accessible.

Any time a social researcher is going to use sampling, they must first identify their target population. What is this target population?

the larger group they wish to generalize about.

Which of the following is true about a sample?

a smaller group who are representatives of a larger group. The part of the population that will actually be studied.

A simple random sample is defined as:

a particular type of probability sample in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected.

The analysis of documents—such as medical records, photographs, diaries, letters, newspapers, and song lyrics—uses which of the following types of data?

existing sources

If a sociologist watches a lot of television and counts the number of times women play roles with lower status than those played by men, what research method is he using?

content analysis

Which of the following is an advantage of replicability in experiments?

Replicability is the ability of another researcher to replicate or repeat the study. Advantage: Repeating a study in order to test the validity of its results is an important element of the scientific method.

What can an institutional review board do if it has reservations about the safety or ethics of a research project?

It may require changes to the protocol or even stop the project from going forward.

What is the difference between basic and applied research?

basic research is the search for knowledge without any agenda or desire to use that knowledge to affect change.

Chapter 6

Deviance

In order for a behavior, trait, or belief to be considered deviant, it must:

deviant behavior must be sufficiently serious or unusual to spark a negative sanction or punishment.

Which of the following is NOT one of the topics that is examined when sociologists study deviance?

Norms are universal and always identified as deviant across cultures and times

Although branding is no longer used as a form of punishment in the United States, some subcultures have adopted it as a form of body art. This demonstrates that:

What is considered deviant changes over time.

Imagine that a powerful and influential person decided to heavily tattoo her own face with symbols and images that told parts of her life story. Would she be treated as a deviant?

Yes, it would be in the United States, although there are other cultures that would consider it normal or desirable.

Which of the following describes how deviance can be explained from the functionalist perspective?

Deviance can help society clarify its moral boundaries: what is right and wrong.
Promote social cohesion(functionalists value this): people can be brought together in the face of crime or other violations.

Because laws represent the interests of those in power, crimes committed by the upper classes are typically treated more leniently than crimes committed by the lower classes. This argument is consistent with

Conflict theory

The parents of a deviant child often want to find some way to excuse their offspring’s behavior, and it’s common to hear them say, “He just fell in with a bad crowd.” Which symbolic interactionist theory of deviance does this explanation most closely resemble?

Differential association theory: Edwin Sutherland’s hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our association through deviant peers.

What did Robert Merton call a prediction that came true only because the prediction was made?

Self-fulfilling Prophecy: an inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation, becomes accurate; a prediction that causes itself to come true

How do sociologists define positive deviance?

actions considered deviant within a given context but are later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic

Chapter 11

The Economy and Work

The economy is not only about money, but also about:

the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services within a society.

New innovations in farming like mechanized seed spreaders and new techniques of crop rotation were part of what macro-level social change?

The Agricultural Revolution

What new technology was integral to the Industrial Revolution?

the steam engine: the first used to power machinery

Why did so many people dislike working on assembly lines?

Because workers never had the satisfaction of seeing the finished product, and they were also frustrated with the unsafe, exhausting working conditions.

How has the Information Revolution changed the nature of work and the economy?

It brought a profound shift from an economy based on the production of goods to one based on the production of knowledge and services.

knowledge work(ers): those who work primarily with information and who create value in the economy through their ideas, judgments, analyses, designs, or innovations

American workers often describe themselves as “working for the weekend.” Karl Marx would say that this sentiment indicates that in our relationship to work we are:

…

What are the benefits of telecommuting?

Telecommuting: working from home while staying connected to the office through communications technology. They stay at home rather that commute to the office.

Tactics that let workers take back some degree of control over the conditions in which they work are called:

Resistance Strategies

According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law concerning wages, overtime, child labor, safety and health, or industrial regulation is classified as: